Hi
All,
I hope everyone had a great fall season! There may be a few
teams still in action. If you get a chance, come out and support the AVHS
Boys varsity and EVHS Girls varsity section champion soccer teams as they enter
state play the week of 10/27.
As always, please let me know if there is any feedback or
questions.
Barry
1. 11/1 training - a
reminder that we are having a coaches coffee talk on Sat 11/1 from 9A-11A in
the VAA Field House. The theme for the session is "The importance of
basic technique". I will present basic information about the Dutch
and Brazilian training systems and we will view some video. Then, in
true "coffee talk" fashion, we will discuss ideas for improving our player's
basic technique. We would like new, experienced, and all our coaches to
share drills, practices and ideas. If you send me any drills or plans in
advance I will include these in the handouts. We will, of course, have
coffee and donuts! This session is open to any VUSC or VAA soccer coach.
Please register (so I know how much coffee and how many sets of handouts
we need) at: http://spreadsheets.google.
2. MYSA coach training -
fall USSF coaching license courses are posted at http://www.mnyouthsoccer.org/
3. Fall footskills -
fall footskills starts on Tues. 11/4 and continues each Tues through the end of
Dec. Don't forget that while this is important training for your players,
it is also a great coaching education opportunity. The pros are running
great drills that you can use in your team practices! I would
particularly recommend watching the keeper training. Information and
times are listed at http://www.vusc.org/page/show/
4. winter training -
beginning on Tues Jan. 6 and continuing through the end of Feb, we are offering
winter "camp-style" training for all teams U14 and younger. The
training will be run by Marc Hutton (last year's BU19 Premier coach) and will
focus the basics of 1v1, 2v1, 2v2 and 1v2. There is a nominal team fee
for the weekly training. We also require one coach from each team to
attend each session (there can be more than one coach or different coaches can
attend different session). This is another excellent player and coach
learning opportunity. I highly recommend this training for you and your
team.
5. 11/7 dinner - don't
forget the Fri 11/7 VUSC volunteer appreciation dinner! 6-10P at
Stephano's (Hwy. 13 and Cliff). Please email Bob Kincade, rkincade@stonebridgecap.com
if you can make it.
6. Valley United has a brick
on the Nation Soccer Hall of Fame "Walk of Fame". You can view
our brick at http://national.soccerhall.
7.
Website of the Month - "You Are the Ref"
Test your knowledge of the LOTG! http://www.guardian.co.uk/
8. video(s) of the month
(teamwork goals 1 and 2).
Check out these videos for great examples of teamwork! http://www.youtube.com/watch?
9. Article of the Month - Proactive Communication
From Lawrence Fine, www.finesoccer.com
How often do you see (and hear) a keeper
yelling at their teammates about what they SHOULD HAVE DONE? I seem to
hear that more and more recently and whenever I do hear that I wonder
"shouldn't the keeper have said something before the fact, to help their
teammate handle the situation better then after the fact when there isn't much
they can do about it?"
Anytime you catch yourself yelling "you
should have marked number 10" consider that YOU should have told someone
to mark number 10 before the ball was played in, instead of after the fact.
Anytime you catch yourself yelling "you
should have stepped up" ask yourself whether you had told them ahead of
time or did you wait till it was too late.
When you tell someone ahead of time what to
do, they can make the adjustment before the fact and do the right thing.
This would be an example of being proactive.
When you tell someone what they should have
done, after the fact, this frequently comes off as being extremely negative
and, even if your point was accurate, will often result in hard feelings,
simply because you were reactive instead of proactive.
Helping people ahead of time will make them
better players. Telling people what they should have done, after the
fact, will frequently make you someone others wont listen to, in the future
There are times when you do need to explain
to others how to handle a situation better because, if a mistake is made and
they don't know what the mistake was or how to fix the mistake, they wont be
learning. However, if you find yourself mainly telling people what they
should have done rather than what they should do next, there probably is a
problem. If you do need to be reactive in your communication, considering
starting with 'next time you should" rather than "you should
have" This lets the player know it's a learning opportunity rather
than a reprimand.
Any questions, comments or suggestions
should be sent to Lawrence@finesoccer.com or they can be posted on the
FineSoccer Forum
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